Modern appliances such as frontloading washing machines or dryers may provide for lid or door switches detecting when the appliance lid or door is open. These lid switches turn off the appliance to allow the user unhampered access to the clothing in the machine and to protect the consumer from machinery moving inside the appliance. Such switches may provide a button extending from the housing of the appliance to be activated by closing of the door, the latter which presses the button inward into the housing.
The switch operator may slide within an outer sleeve that provides for mechanical support to the switch operator guiding it in axial translation when the switch operator is pressed by the door. The sleeve may conform closely to an outer surface of the switch operator both to prevent the ingress of contaminants into the housing and to prevent camming or jamming of the switch operator as it is pressed inward by the door. The sleeve may be stationary with respect to the housing and therefore sealed to the housing.
Contaminants such as water, bleach, fabric softener and detergent that are blocked by the close fit between the sleeve and the switch operator may nevertheless accumulate and dry on the outer surface of the switch operator that protrudes from the housing when the door is open. Such contaminants can cause the switch operator to jam within the sleeve when it is retracted therein potentially allowing operation of the appliance even when the door is open.
US patent publication 2014/0124342, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and hereby incorporated by reference, describes a switch pushbutton that is supported not by an outer sleeve but by an inner post removed from accumulating contaminants. By allowing the outer sleeve a clearance from the pushbutton, at least when the pushbutton is pressed in, inward jamming of the pushbutton is avoided.
The pushbutton may further communicate with contacts positioned to the side of the pushbutton away from direct exposure to moisture.